Samsung develops fuel cell for media players

SEOUL, South Korea  Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. said Tuesday (Jan. 31) it has developed the first prototype fuel cell for portable multimedia players (PMP), with its affiliate Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT).

Samsung reported that a 1.5-watt player can run up to four hours on the replaceable methanol fuel cell cartridge. The company plans to commercialize the cell by 2007 or 2008, according to a company spokesman.

In conjunction with SAIT, Samsung plans to soon introduce another PMP-loadable fuel cell able to run at 10 hours on a single charge.

Along with the rechargeable battery for PMPs, Samsung has also developed a fuel cell allowing a PDA with 1.3-watt power source to run eight hours, compared with two hours using existing secondary batteries, it reported.

Last November, Samsung said it developed a fuel cell for laptops able to supply 15 hours on a charge—reportedly double that of other fuel cells. The methanol fuel cell has an energy density of 200 watt hours per liter.

According to Japan’s Nomura Research Institute, the global fuel cell market will grow from 120 billion won ($124 million) in 2006 to 700 billion won ($725 million) in 2010 and 2.4 trillion won ($2.49 billion) in 2015.